A Bengali man living in New York on a student visa has been accused of employing the Geek Squad auto-renewal scam to defraud an elderly Orange County man.
An agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security filed a probable cause affidavit, seeking an arrest warrant against Mazharul Islam for conspiracy and wire fraud, on Nov. 18 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
Islam, 24, lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, according to court records, and studies computer science, data analysis and English as a second language at New York General Consulting in Midtown Manhattan.
In the Geek Squad scam a criminal pretends to be an employee of a BestBuy electronics store. The scammer sends a phishing email, warning the target that an urgent action must be taken and urging the individual to provide personal information, such as a credit card number or Social Security number.
In this case, a 73-year-old Warwick man received an email last December purportedly from the BestBuy Geek Squad, to renew a service contract for $419.99. He called the listed phone number and spoke with a man who said the service contract had already been renewed.
The scammer directed him to enter information on a fake refund link, and then conned the victim into believing that he had mistakenly entered $41,999 and that he had to pay BestBuy in cash.
The elderly man withdrew $35,000 from his bank and later that night handed over the money to a courier deployed by the scammer.
The next day, the scammer called back to arrange another payment. The elderly man withdrew $8,000 from his bank, but when he spoke to his daughter she told him he had been scammed.
The victim reported the circumstances to the Warwick police department, and the police helped the victim set up another meeting with the courier to deliver $22,000.
That evening, the elderly man handed over an envelope, containing paper but no currency, to the courier. Warwick police stopped the courier nearby and arrested him. Islam was the courier.
Islam identified himself as a citizen of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. He allegedly admitted that he had made similar cash pickups before and that he worked for someone in India who paid him $2,000 for each pickup.
Even then, according to court records, Islam continued to employ the scam.
This past January, a Garrettsville, Ohio man was conned into forking over $40,000. But as in the Orange County case, the victim got suspicious and went to the police.
The courier picked up a $20,000 payment, while police, county sheriff’s deputies and the FBI were waiting nearby. The courier tried to escape, driving up to 100 miles per hour and crashing his car, according to court records.
Once again, Islam was the courier.
A federal judge in Akron, Ohio ordered him to be detained pending trial. On Aug. 6, Islam pleaded guilty to money laundering. He was scheduled to be sentenced in Ohio this week.
